He had to get off her. Little Carl was beyond pissed at that, but he was not a man to be ruled by his dick. Or his bear, for that matter, which took long moments for him to slam back into its mental cage. It wanted to flip her onto her stomach, lift her ass up to him, and plunge in for the next week until she was pregnant. He rolled off her instead, pulled her cell phone out of his desk drawer, and tossed it to her.
She grabbed it eagerly and he watched as disappointment flashed through her expression. No call from Theo. Even now she was more worried about the boy than she was for herself. She then thumbed on the phone and hit 911.
“Hello?” she said when the dispatcher answered. It was a female voice—probably Dot—and thanks to his shifter hearing, he could make out both sides of the conversation. “Hello? I’m Becca Weitz, and I’ve been kidnapped.”
“Hello, Miss Weitz. Thank you for calling. Are you there at Camp Max?”
“I’m…I don’t know. I’m in Mr. Max’s bedroom.”
“Really?” Dot was obviously intrigued by that. Fortunately, she returned to a professional tone a moment later. “Officer Kappes is on her way there now to give you an update. We’ve notified Kalamazoo police as well with a full description of Theo, but we had to keep it low-key for obvious reasons. Don’t worry, though. We’ll find him right and tight. And welcome to the Gladwin clan. I always thought you’d be joining us one day. Glad to see it finally happened.”
“Um. Yeah. Okay. Is, um, is there someone else I could speak to?”
“Sure there is. Here’s Sargent Mummert. Say something reassuring to the scared mom, will you, Hal?”
A moment later, Hal’s deep voice came on the line. He said all the right things, an echo of everything Dot had said. None of it helped. He could see the despair grow on Becca’s face the longer they went on. In the end, she thanked them politely and thumbed off her phone. Then she looked him hard in the eyes.
“You’ve convinced them all.”
“Didn’t have to convince them. Dot’s got three shifter kids and has been right where you are now waiting for them to come through the First Change. Hal’s not a shifter, but he was born and raised here. He’s seen it enough to know.” He leaned forward. “You’re not alone, Becca. We’re not here to hurt you. In fact, it’s the opposite. We’re trying to help.”
“By knocking me out and dragging me?—”
“To where Theo is going to come. I promise, Becca, it’s a natural part of being a shifter.”
She swallowed and looked away. He knew she was fighting tears but was too terrified to let them fall. He sat there looking at her, desperately searching for a way to make this better. He came up empty, so he decided that retreat was the better part of valor.
“Tonya’s going to be here in a moment. That’s Officer Kappes. You’ll probably want to get a little more together before then. I’ll be right out here.”
“Am I a prisoner?”
He sighed. “The bathroom’s through there.” She looked toward the bathroom and he took the opportunity to lift the phone out of her hand. “And, yes, I suppose you’re trapped here for the night. We’re too short-handed waiting for Theo and Justin. No one can drive you back to Kalamazoo.”
“I’ll take a cab.”
His grizzly growled at her stubbornness. According to it, she was here in his den and that made her his. He even felt his shoulder blades tingle as the shift started to gather. Damn it, she had no idea what defying him did to his sanity. In the end, he managed to force out a curt sentence. “You can’t leave yet.”
Her chin rose an inch at that, and he could tell she was about to challenge him. Normally, he could control his reaction to defiance, but after their wrestling match, he was on the edge. One more challenge from her, and his grizzly was going to dominate her completely and damn the consequences.
“Listen carefully, Becca. This is real. We’re grizzly bear shifters. We’ll show you, but you have to calm down.”
She frowned. “You’re going to change into a bear? Right in front of me?” Thankfully her tone was less of a challenge and more like confused questions.
“Yes.”
“And you think that’s going to reassure me?”
Well, okay, she had a point. “It’s not my job to reassure you. It’s my job to keep Theo safe.”
“Because you’re his father.”
“Because I’m— What?” Jesus, she was keeping him on his toes. Throwing things at him left and right, trying to catch him off guard.
“I’m not stupid, though I should have seen it earlier.” She climbed slowly off the bed. His grizzly tracked every nuance of her movement, ready to take her down at the first show of disobedience. “Your frame and his are similar. The eyes are different, but not the jaw. You’ve got the same belief that you’re right and the rest of the world is wrong.”
“I don’t think?—”
“And that would explain your obsession with him. To the point that you planted Amy next door to us.”
